Johnson keys late rally against Runners

Thursday

May 26, 2011 at 12:01 AMMay 26, 2011 at 10:24 PM

EDINBURG – Carl Johnson hit a bases-clearing triple to power a five-run seventh as the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings came from behind to beat the Edinburg Roadrunners 6-5 on Thursday at Edinburg Baseball Stadium.

Roadrunners (0-2) started Corey Goudeau (0-1) was in control for the first six innings, allowing one run on seven hits and one walk while striking out five. With the WhiteWings (2-0) trailing 2-1 in the top of the seventh, David Peralta reached on an infield-single and Jonathan Fernandez bunted hit way on base. One out later, Leivi Ventura walked to load the bases. Matt Chutchian took over on the mound and induced a ground ball to short, but the throw went off of the glove of second baseman Jason Thomas, allowing a run to score as the bases remained loaded.

That brought up Johnson, who had entered the game as a defensive replacement an inning earlier. After taking a strike, Johnson lifted a fly ball to the right-center field wall to give the WhiteWings the lead. Mike Schurz replaced Chutchian, and on the first pitch he threw, gave up an RBI-single to Eric Gonzalez to cap the inning with the WhiteWings up 6-2.

The Roadrunners pushed across three unearned runs in the eighth against Jason Moody (1-0), but Edgar Martinez recorded the final four outs for his second save.

Osiel Flores led off the bottom of the second with an infield single against Andy Wells. One out later, R.J. Harris and Gabe Memmert hit singles to score Flores. Brad Wilkerson followed with a groundball to second, but the relay throw to try to turn a double-play hit off of the glove of first baseman Eric Gonzalez, allowing Harris to score as the Roadrunners took a 2-0 lead.

That was it against Wells, who struck out seven while allowing six hits and one walk in five innings.

The WhiteWings and Roadrunners play game two of this four-games series on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. Left-hander Chase Davenport (0-0, 0.00) is expected to face right-hander Aaron Guerra (0-0, 0.00).